A number of telephone communication services have been proposed and are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,713,837, No. 4,905,273, No. 4,922,518, No. 4,942,599, and No. 4,969,184, which are incorporated herein by reference.
Hotels have recognized the desire of some guests to receive or have available to them facsimile services whereby they can transmit and receive documents. Many hotels now have a business area which will transmit and receive documents for guests. However, the level of this service is certainly well below that normally experienced by the guest who would have his own dedicated facsimile machine. Some hotels have provided a facsimile transmitting booth in a common area of the hotel. However, again, although this provides the user with some privacy with respect to the transmission of documents, it is not particularly convenient with respect to the receipt of documents. Any receipt of documents must be prearranged such that the user is at the particular facsimile booth at the time the document is received.
A further problem in providing adequate facsimile services to hotels is the existing telephone wiring within the hotels which generally do not have the capacity to have a dedicated facsimile machine in each hotel room. Furthermore, the hotel PBX system is typically answered by an operator whereby any facsimile transmissions are initially received by the operator and thus, normal facsimile transmission is not possible.
There remains a need to provide a simple, effective facsimile service for establishments having a PBX system which service does not require rewiring of the property and which does not compromise the privacy and security of the user.